NFL Power Poll
It’s Tuesday. This is what we do.
Like frustrated Gallup employees or the interns at Neilsen.
It’s poll time. (Side question: Have we done a Rushmore of ‘polls/poles’ before? And remember, the moderator is always watching.)
Before we get there – and we have two more games tonight, which is good for entertainment hunting but considering the four teams involved tonight are a combined 26-26 and of that quartet, just the Rams appear to be able to make any noise come January – this thought dawned on me: Which rookie QB has looked the most like a future star?
Sure, the easy answer would be Mac Jones, but Mac 10 – yes he copyrighted that nickname – has the enviable chance to be QB1 for the New England Patriots.
Would Trevor Lawrence be better in Foxboro than Mac Jones has? Would Justin Fields? What about Trey Lance or Zach Wilson.
Lawrence, Wilson and Lance went 1-2-3 to the Jags, Jets and 49ers.
Lawrence has struggled more than anyone could have foreseen, and maybe that’s on Urban Liar. Wilson has struggled more than that, and maybe that’s on the Jets’ lack of talent around him. Lance – by design or by his failure on the practice field – has sat for most of the season behind Jimmy G.
I was impressed with Justin Fields’ skill set last night in that loss. I was not impressed at all by Matt Nagy’s play-calling or designs to use Fields’ skill set. (Side note: Fields is not Lamar Jackson fast – who is? – but the former Georgia signee and THE Ohio State star can really run. Like tailback fast. If you are not using that Matt Nagy, then you are going to a fist fight with one arm tied behind your back. And good luck with that.)
Jones looks the part for sure, but the stakes will rise, and I wonder if his performance to date is the player or the place. Thoughts?
Hey, let’s check in on the elves at the poll. (Side question: Seriously, how many OSHA violations are happening around the clock at the North Pole as Santa’s crew is tying up their loose ends?)
Powerful
1 Green Bay. The sneaky part of how good this team is and can be is noted that the defense will only get better as it gets healthier. In fact, let the Packers secure home-field advantage and take a week or two – with the bye – to rest, and it’s going to be tough to see an NFC roll into 920 and win.
2 Kansas City. Remember when everyone was wondering what was wrong with the Chiefs? Man, that was cute.
3 New England. Yes, the Pats lost. But that loss was way more explainable – and way less painful – than the setbacks of some of the other contenders for No. 3 status. The Pats lost by 10 at Indy to a Colts team we all have been saying no one wants to see come Christmas. (Side note: Fat Vader’s Jonathan Taylor MVP ticket sure looks better and better these days.) The Pats lost by 10 and the Colts scored on a block punt and a Taylor 10-mile TD run at the end. Happens. The Bucs got blanked and lost so many wide receivers, they may have to bring back everyone’s favorite vaccine card fabricator Antonio Brown. And that loss was not as bad as the Cardinals, who got pushed around by the Lions. Yes, the Detroit Lions. I’ll still ride with the Pats and Belichick among those options.
4 Dallas. And maybe the Cowboys have a claim for the 3 hole. Side question: Are we ready to admit that Tony Pollard is better than Zeke Elliott? If you are not ready to admit it, then you simply have not watched the Cowboys play this year. Side question: Did anyone else find themselves in a similar boat last Sunday, wondering why the Falcons were not on Fox, and then finding yourself pleased that the Falcons were not on Fox? It was quite refreshing to watch the best game in the 4 p.m. window for a change rather than being force-fed another Falcons fracas. Side question on the side question: Do I underuse fracas? Discuss.
5 Tampa Bay. Yes the injuries are a monster concern. But the Bucs still have a little fella named Tom Brady in the huddle. And when he’s a) not breaking tablets and b) not playing the Saints, he’s still cash money on most Sundays.
Powerless
28 Chicago. We’ve said this many times, and it may be the most consistent and accurate determination of a coach’s value: Is the team better than its parts or worse than its pieces. The Bears are 100% the latter and it should come as no surprise that several betting services have Matt Nagy at minus-150 to keep his job for the 2022 season. And that was before last night.
29 New York Jets. How bad are the Jets? Well, the Jags have the worst record in the league with the tie-breakers factored in and the Jets’ scoring margin of minus-178 is actually worse than the Jags’ minus-174. Egad.
30 Houston. We mentioned rookie QBs earlier, but how about these numbers? A completion % of 65.6 with 1,946 passing yards and 10 scores with nine picks. Not great, but not terrible either. Those are the numbers for Davis Mills, the Texans QB who was picked in the middle of round 2 last spring. Compared to Zach Wilson (10 games, 56.2% completions, 1,911 yards with six TDs and 11 picks) or Trevor Lawrence (14 games, 58.1%, 2,945 yards with nine scores and 14 picks) or even Justin Fields (12 games, 58.9%, 1,870 yards with seven scores and 10 picks) – and remember Davis Mills is doing this with the Texans not the Pats – who is the best rookie QB in the league again?
31 Detroit. Ah, how do you win and still lose? By winning a meaningless game that now puts you at the whim of others when the all-important draft comes calling.
32 Jacksonville. How do you win the weekend by losing to the second-(or-maybe-third)-worst team in the league? By firing your lying head coach and by moving to the top of the draft board.
Signing Day 2.0 in ’21
Ah, the ease and simplicity of the signing days of days long in the rearview. Like the salad days of 2018.
Scan the interweb sites. See who finished where behind Alabama and Georgia. Rinse and repeat and hope that some three-star would turn out to be a dude or maybe a juco transfer could contribute at a position of need.
As H.I McDonnough rightly noted, when they learned that Ed’s “insides were a rocky place where (his) seed could find no purchase,” in “Raising Arizona, “I preminisced, no return of the saIad days.”
Alas.
Now think of the questions and the details.
Like is there a Milo’s Tea brand in Eugene, Or., or is Bo Nix’s NIL deal with Milo’s no longer sweet?
Or is it a violation that Cade Mays simply made it known to the world and UT boosters everywhere that he would return to K-Town if he got an NIL deal comparable to the third- or fourth-round bonus since that’s where he’s pegged in the 2022 draft?
Or even this list, which amazingly, may be more important – and certainly more immediately impactful – than the signing day rankings.
Yes, this is the list of the top transfer classes of the early signing period. (And now try to envision explaining the top portal procurements for pre-bowl programs and Bo Nix’s sweet tea baggage to your 2015 recruiting-following self.)
“I preminisced, no return of the saIad days.”
So South Florida added 13 portal additions to take the top spot. Great, I guess. One of them is former Clemson four-star player Ajou Ajou, who figures to be a receiver’s receiver next fall.
Not surprisingly, Mel Tucker continued to raid disgruntled players from Southern programs, a practice that helped Michigan State contend this past fall. He has four big-time transfers coming to East Lansing.
Indiana was third on the list with some familiar names, including undersized – and underused – Auburn running back Shaun Shivers. That said, Indiana lost versatile QB Michael Penix to the portal too.
Louisville, which added former UT runner Tiyon Evans, and Kansas round out the top five. Deion Sanders and Jackson State are sixth, followed by San Jose State, Purdue, FAU and Arkansas.
Fab picks that are fab (for now)
So, I know everyone wants to see the bowl updates.
Rest easy. They are slated for Wednesday.
But, somebody you know is cashing tickets in the early portion of the college football season.
Tulsa made it six of nine in official bowl picks in this space against the number. That’s tidy. (Not sure how or why I forgot to include the Marshall failing to cover in Monday’s tally. But so it goes.)
We have three more today in two games.
Our best guess picks for the “Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success, Bowler Optional” were Wyoming laying the points and San Diego State catching the points. Each line is right around a field goal.
But our official, wink-wink, nod-nod, Fab 4 picks to earn a little extra Christmas entertainment are as follows.
Kent State-Wyoming over 59. This is a matchup of top-30 rushing offenses on each side against bottom 30 rushing defenses on each side. In fact, there is one common foe for the Golden Flashes and the Cowboys, and that was Northern Illinois. Northern Illinois rushed for more than 220 yards and scored more than 40 points against each defense in today’s Potato Bowl.
San Diego State minus-2.5 and under 50 against UTSA. OK, we have been bullish on the Roadrunners because, well, they are the Roadrunners. Side note: The Smyrna Athletic Association’s peewee football team was called the Roadrunners. My first job as a teenager was announcing the home games on Saturday mornings. The best player in the league was an undersized Roadrunners tailback named Kareem Jordan. Kid could scoot, and was good for at least one toss sweep TD every game. When the toss sweep would come and Jordan would get the corner, some 13-year-old go-getter behind the mic thought it was clever to exclaim, “Kaaaaarreeeeeeeeeeem hooks around left end – good-bye.” Anywell, the UTSA Roadrunners have been arguably the most consistent team in Texas not located in Houston. And a big part of that is a ground game that averaged right at 190 rushing yards a game. Well, a large part of that total – as well as 15 rushing TDs – came on the sincerely strong legs of Sincere McCormick. Well, McCormick has opted out of the bowl game. Sincerely. Hence, the line flipped from UTSA minus-2.5 to San Diego State minus-2.5. Hmmmmmmmm. That’s a big loss.
Sincerely.
Regular season: 47-46 against the spread (50.5%, hi Matt)
Bowl season: 6-3 against the spread (66.7%, hi everybody)
This and that
– Egad, speaking of wagers, did you happen to see the Monday games. Yes, games, plural. Well, the Browns rallied and forced the Raiders – who were laying 2.5 or 3 depending on the number you caught – to try a field goal on the final play of the game. Daniel Carlson was pure and the Raiders won 16-14 but failed to cover against the artist formerly known as Nick Mullens, who was elevated from practice squad to QB1 because of COVID protocols for the Browns before Monday’s kick. And that was the milder of the two games in terms of wild gambling finishes. The Vikings manhandled the Bears for most of the game, leading 17-3 despite passing for fewer yards than the Smyrna Roadrunners back in the day. Well, with the game in hand, the Bears scored a TD on the last play of the game to make it 17-9. Minnesota was laying 7 at almost every betting shop and the in-game line at the moment of the final snap was Minnesota minus-13.5. The TD stood – it sure looked like a score to these eyes – but the extra point was not attempted, which meant the original line of 7 stood in a 17-9 Minnesota win.
– Today’s A2 on a grand gesture at a special time of year for some elderly folks in East Ridge.
– You know the rules. Here’s Paschall’s prose on the proper place for UT’s high-octane offense.
– This is a joke, right? Right? The headline read, “Is Biden really getting an unfair shake from the media?” Do what? Biden is getting a universal pass from the majority of the national outlets. The story even included this passage: “That conversation kicked into high gear earlier this month, when the Washington Post published an analysis of thousands of news headlines that suggested Biden has received more negative converge over the past four months than former President Donald Trump did in the same time span last year, despite Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic.” Wow, where to start? First, point me toward the leader who has handled the pandemic well. I’ll wait. Pick on Trump for any number of his missteps, especially those after the November election. But the pandemic has been universally botched. Because even with the vaccine widely available, Biden’s struggles with all the variants, especially this nasty Omicron, have been dreadful too. Again, no one has handled it well to be honest. For goodness sake, is the national media still pre-submitting questions to the President? And the left thinks he’s getting unfair coverage? From the Washington Post and the New York Times? Wow. Here’s the story, and the back-and-forth viewpoints at the bottom are worth a look.
– This had to be expected, right? The minor league teams that were contracted in the MLB overhaul of its farm systems are suing Major League Baseball and challenging the game’s antitrust exemptions.
Today’s questions
True or false, it’s Tuesday.
True or false, Rodgers vs. Mahomes in the Super Bowl – sponsored by StateFarm no doubt – would be fantastic.
True or false, a major college football program can consistently win primarily using the transfer portal.
True or false, as gambling becomes more accessible across the country, the TV numbers for the bowl games will rise.
True or false, your fantasy football players were hijacked by this crazy week.
True or false, Mac Jones will be the best QB from this rookie class.
You know the drill. Answer some T or Fs, Ernie, leave some T or Fs.
Dang it, forgot a Christmas conversation this morning. Any suggestions. “Raising Arizona” could be considered a Christmas movie, true or false.
As for today, Dec. 21, let’s review.
On this day 130 years ago, the first game of basketball was played by James Naismith’s students in Springfield, Mass. Spy, you scored, what, three baskets that day?
Josh Gibson, arguably the greatest player never to play in the MLB, would have been 110 today. Gibson reportedly hit more than 800 career homers in his time in the Negro Leagues and barnstorming around the country. According to this page on baseball-reference.com, which is an amazing site, in Gibson’s 12 years in the Negro Leagues in which he played more than one game, he led the league in homers 11 times.
Joe Paterno would have been 95 today.
How about this? On this day in 1937, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” debuted. Also on this day in that same year Jane Fonda was born.
Not sure if we’ve done his Rushmore or not, and not sure you can do it considering his multiple roles as Nick Fury in the Marvel realm, but Samuel L. Jackson is 73 today. Dude looks great for 73, no?
Kiefer Sutherland’s 55 today. His Rushmore is better than you may know. Whatcha’ got?